Canadian writer. He has published fiction and non-fiction, including Packing My Library, Curiosity, With Borges, A History of Reading, The Library at Night, Fabulous Monsters and (together with Gianni Guadalupi) The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. He has received numerous awards, among others the Guggenheim, Commander of the Order of Arts & Letters, France, the Formentor Prize, the Alfonso Reyes Prize, the Gutenberg Prize, and Officer of the Order of Canada. He is doctor honoris causa of the universities of Ottawa and York in Canada, Liège in Belgium and Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge, UK, and the University of Poitiers, France. Until August of 2018 he was the director of the National Library of Argentina. He is now the director of the Centro de Estudos da História da Leitura in Lisbon, Portugal and occupies the Chair of “Europe: languages and literatures” at the Collège de France.
